I pick off the dead blossoms of purple and pink and survey the tall grasses that sequester my secret garden within a wall of feathery plumes—a serene escape hidden behind my seaside cottage and the source of my homegrown poisons. Dew clings to delicate petals like brilliant pearls in the morning sunshine. Foxglove, its woolly leaves and tall stalks bearing pink tubular-spotted flowers, and wolfsbane, yielding its helmet-shaped purple blooms. Just two of the common plants seductive to bees—and to assassins.

My name is Lily Robinson. I’m a physician who took the Hippocratic Oath of a healer—to do no harm—and an oath to our country to eliminate terrorists at the government’s behest. I’ve said it before, “hidden under a cloak of legitimacy, I have been pressed to deliver extraordinary service for my country. It has been a successful ruse. A premium blend of dark deception with just an aroma of truth.” My knowledge of poisons assures death is inevitable once the target is in my sight, but it also serves the patients I treat on my toxicology service at an academic medical center in Boston.

Today, I tend flowers in my garden with gloved hands while recuperating from my previous assignment. Physical wounds heal, but psychological ones endure. Images like dream clouds occupy my mind. What would it be like if I revealed the truth about a daughter I thought was long dead, or a forbidden lover who became my soulmate? Would my life be different? How long do I rationalize that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one?

I shake my head, dislodging thoughts, and fill my basket with a toxic harvest. Soon, I’ll be off to Sydney, Australia, to investigate the death of renowned climate scientist Daniel Williams, whose research has established the undeniable effects of climate change. But if he was murdered, why now? His work has been in the public eye for years. What more did he know?

Before we go to Sydney, we will travel to Cape Town to meet with Williams’s colleague, Graham Harmon, to better understand their research. Unknown to my traveling companions, South Africa has special memories for me. It’s where the seed for my daughter Rose was planted. I’m sure of it.

Our final destination is the Atomium—a formidable monument built to resemble a magnified iron crystal—in Brussels, Belgium, the venue for the Climate Council conference. What more will be revealed? I can only imagine where our journey will lead us.

So, Daniel Williams. Is it true you met your end in the Great Barrier Reef at the hands of an assassin—one who relishes poison like I do? If so, I will pit my skills against theirs, my science against theirs, and my love of country over theirs. I am, after all, the Queen of All Poisons.

We’ll Always Have Poison, A Dr. Lily Robinson Mystery Book #4
Genre: Thriller
Release: July 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

In this series finale, pathologist Dr. Lily Robinson races around the globe to hunt an assassin who, like her, finds poison the weapon of choice.

A world-renowned climatologist is found dead off the Great Barrier Reef of northern Australia weeks before he’s set to deliver his earth-shattering findings at the international Climate Council conference. Was it greed to maintain the status quo of fossil fuels—or revolutionary new science—that motivated his murder? Can Lily Robinson stop the killer before another climate scientist dies?

With operative and lover JP Marchand at her side, Lily uncovers a cunning plot that endangers world order, and changes the trajectory of her life—forever.

About the author
BJ Magnani’s fascination with toxicology led her to a career in pathology and laboratory medicine. She is Professor of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Emerita at Tufts University School of Medicine and the author of the Dr. Lily Robinson thriller series about a Boston physician recruited by the U.S. government as a covert assassin. The series finale, We’ll Always Have Poison, was released on July 17,  2024. A portion of the proceeds from her novels helps women receive free breast and cervical cancer screening through the CAP Foundation. You can learn more about Dr. Magnani, her work, and her Poison Blog at Author | BJ Magnani.